I got enough charge out of the stuffed battery today to crank the van. Even got it started briefly a couple of times.

Here's the facts:

* After a year it still starts!

* I need to keep pumping the pedal nonstop to keep it running

* It still squeaks. Even during cranking

* I silicon'd the bejeebus out of the inlet manifold to rule out leaks this time round

* In the few seconds I kept it running, it ran pretty even, unlike when it just died a year ago.

*Haven't done the compression test yet. That's next on the list

*The piston rings were tighter in the grooves than I would have liked. Some didn't fit at all so I left the originals. They were pretty new anyway. Only replaced due to breakages.

*It has high compression pistons

*it has a secondhand head


Anyone else think it may be a a ring causing problems?
Or are there any other theories. Its an 1800, so people tend to agree it's not pulled studs.

Is it a metallic type of noise or a whistle type of noise Try starting it without the altenator connected to eliminate the altenator (bearings) Could be throwout bearing or lotsa other things...sorry cant be of more help.Does it still leak oil How long did you run it for

Q: Is it a metallic type of noise or a whistle type of noise?
A: Undecided. Given the high pitch and short duration I can't tell.

Q: Try starting it without the altenator connected to eliminate the altenator (bearings?)
A: The sound seems to be coming from the left hand rear. Can't tell the exact origin.

Q: Does it still leak oil?
A: Yep. It's coming from the opposite side of the engine though, and it doesn't seem to be coming from the fuel pump area. Possibly around the cylinder base somewhere. Can't tell.

Q: How long did you run it for?
A: Initially when it stuffed up a year ago, anywhere up to about 15 minutes at a time. Most notable feature was it was 100% gutless. Could barely move along flat ground. It was a royal pain getting it into the shipping container.
This time around, 5 seconds or so. The "Start ya bastard" seemed to be the only thing making it run. Guess there's probably condensation in the lines.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to have another go. If I can make it run a bit longer I'll be happy. I have the remnants of the battery charging.

There was something I noticed retrospectively. I'm not 100% sure but it sounds as though the squeak is once every 2nd revolution. You know, putt-putt-putt-puttsqueak-putt etc.

Hmmmm....sounds like you've got a good one there!! It's a bit hard to suggest anything without auctually hearing it so i guess you will have a better chance of finding the source of the noise if you run it longer.A compression test might rule out pulled studs or other leakage(compression) problems.Sounds like a pulled stud if it's whistling-seen it happen MANY times so don't rule it out just yet... Did you check your lifters when you had the head off?? Were they free in their bores?? Check all valve clearances and lead firing order etc etc in the hope that it is something simple. Is the noise from the side of the head you replaced? What originally happened to the motor for it to stop...it was so long ago I've forgotten!!! If it was tight rings the noise would be fairly consistant..like all the time. Hope it's not your mains..

Have you given it a full tune-up and fresh fuel?

So it's not unheard of to have a pulled stud in a type4 motor?

I'm starting to lean away from it being an intake manifold problem.

I'm sure it's not mixed leads. The car was fine for about 60km after I rebuilt the topends. I was only about 100m from home when it lost power. Luckily the terrain was flat and it chugged home.

The initial problem was a dropped intake valve. It nicely mashed the piston and sent debris into the other three cylinders. It jammed up the motor. Couldn't even turn it with a wrench. It freed up enough on disassembly though.

There was no problem with the lifters as far as i could see. I checked the rockers to make sure there weren't any sheared cam lobes. There weren't by the way.

The valve clearences all seem to be fine.

The noise is from the side I replaced. I took both sides off however. When I did I replaced all the gaskets.
The head wasn't the best but it adequate. There were no signs of cracking or erosion from a previous head gasket leak.

I hope that answered everything.

hey, at least you got it to crank. If the noise is every 2 rotations and its coming from the rear left then i would be thinking distributor? Take off the cap have a look around and wiggle the roto to see if there is any play. If you have metal fragments all through the engine then a fragment may have made its way into the oil gallery near the distributor or something like that. If there were fragments in the engine you really should have flushed out everything to make sure that there were no fragments left, but its too late for that so dont bother kicking yaself just see if you can get it running.
Also try taking the alternator belt off aswell. If your having to run it with "start you bastard" (same thing as aerostart?) then there is most likely a fuel issue. I would drain the tank and fuel lines, fill it up a bit with fresh and check out the carbs, make sure everything is in place. Just double check everything on the engine even if your sure its right ( it happened to me several times) and give us a post with the results. Good luck with it!

sounds like a bus i got a few years back, found it sittin under a mango tree for 5 years, it died there on 3 cyc firing.. got it home gave it a wash, put a batt on it n after a few mins.. waroom off she went purring like a sick kitten.. so in turn sold it for more money.. hahaha
good when they do that..
sorry, dont know about your noise but..

I mean the back, as in furthest away from you when looking at the engine from behind. Closest to the front of the vehicle. Sorry. I was rather unclear, wasn't I?

I think it's once every 2 revs. Like I said, I realised in retrospect. My memory isn't exactly hot.
Didn't get a chance to try it today. Things are pretty full on right now.

There weren't any signs of metal in the engine. Well, not the oily bits anyway. It was limited to the topend. Anywhere that the fuel could go basically. because it was an inlet valve seat, the metal bits blew back and went through the pressure equalisation lines. There were only traces in the other side. A few nasty bits on the same side though. Not enough to damage anything. Still, I wouldn't be surprised if there were an errant particle of metal doing this.

Start ya bastard is pretty much the same thing as aerostart. The mix is slightly different, and a few dollars cheaper.
I have this funny feeling it likes it because it isn't sucking too well, therefore running very, very lean. I tried enriching it. No good. I also pulled down the carbies to check them out and clean them. no problems there as near as I could tell.

You really think I need to drain the tank? There's 40L of fuel in it still. I wish I had a spare mower tank They do wonders as test tanks...

After it stuffed up, and before I noticed the squeak I fitted an electric fuel pump in case it was a pump issue. It's still connected. It'll make flushing the lines easier.
It'll probably be a few days before I can do very much. I'll see if I can at least get it started tomorrow.
I may even flush the carb bowls, time permitting.

Sorry if I haven't answered more recent posts (if there are any). It's taken me a few hours to finish this post. Been on and off the computer.

have you looked at the vac take off and associated hoses around the manoiflds?also dont think that silicone will fix vac leaks as petrol will go straight thru it use stag if you need sealant on fuel assiocated parts

hey,
there isnt really anything at the front left (yes the front..you stand at the back lol) it sounds more like a valve,rocker, pushrod or something like that... I will keep thinkin bout it for ya coz im on scool holz, sounds like its overhaul time to me tho. Drop the engine, take off the heads and see if anything serious has developed, then when ya sorted any probs there remove all the air cleaners etc, connect the tranny with starter motor and try to get it running on the floor (with a bit of wood under it). It will b alot easier to figure where the noises are and have more access.

Sounds like you dont got enough time for that tho so just keep eliminating possible causes. give us a progress post when you get a bit done...

Checked the vac lines over a few times. nothing amiss there. They have hose clamps on them because of a minor problem I had in the past.

The blue silicone does the job kind of. I was mostly doing it for diagnostic purposes this time round. That stuff is pretty tough. And all I wanted was a few seconds of squeak free running. unfortunately I didn't get it. So it isn't the manifold gaskets. I wish it was though. I really do.

I should be able to have another quick crack at it tomorrow... oh today. fingers crossed I get a little further.

I'd love to be able to drop out the engine quickly. It's a royal headache. pulling off half the tinware, the oil filler and dipstick stuff, the towbar and bumper etc. Argh!
Anyway, I'll keep you all posted.

dont have to take off anything (except the carbs and manifold if you dont have ramps or jacks)! Just undo the crossmemeber bolts, main engine/gearbox bearer bolts and then the bolts at the front of the gearbox. And all the other stuff is only heater cables, gearshift, wires etc to engine, fuel line, vac hose, clutch cable and accelerator cable. Its bout a 1/2 day job.... but keep checking stuff until you find the problem then make the decision... good luck

Ohhh... you mean drop the engine out with the transmission. I guess that would make things easier. Is it hard to do balance-wise? I've seen it done with the van on a hoist and the engine/transmission sitting on a trolley.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to check anything yet. It's been busy here. I am seriously hoping I'll be able to tomorrow. If I'm lucky I can get about 15 minutes to do things.

yea its pretty tricky to balance it. I use a couple of bits of rope to help, two around each side of the crossmember and then around the chasis, then one around the front of the gearbox and through the sideways beam thing. The ropes also make it easier to swing back and get the front of the gearbox over the bar thing that the selector is above (duno wat its called)... Hardest part is gettin the transmission carrier bolts out, takes forever and gravity is a bitch when it comes to circulation!

squeak could be dry distributor cam
a little grease on the points block,might do the trick

Removing the transmission carrier bolts. That will be...fun.

Dizzy's wrong neck of the woods. Thanks for reminding me to check the grease on the block though. It's been a while.

sure do have a tapered nose without thread... the hard part is just the angles and small amount of room you have to work with, especially the drivers side!

I got it running for a while today! By a while I mean a couple of minutes. I let it die because it can't quite idle and I had no use for running it longer.

I can tell you the following from what I learned this time around:

* The squeak is every 2 revs.

* The squeak is less pronounced than it was when the engine first failed.

* After running, it didn't like cranking (no surprise there)

* When cranking after running, this was the pattern: 'rurrrrr------rurrrr-------rur(hiss)rurrr----' and so forth.

* I have never heard the hiss before today.

I ran out of daylight so I couldn't do a compression test, but I thought the hiss was pretty self explanatory.

Please, correct me if I am wrong as the following is just an educated guess;

As the squeak/hiss is every 2 revs it is compression related. Especially because it seems to tie in with the compression stroke.

As the sound is every 2 revs it couldn't be a piston/ring friction sound.

I have never heard blowby past pistons make much noise, especially a squeak, so it is likely to be a topend problem.

This leaves the most likely candidates to be:
*Head gasket/compression leak around barrel.
*Cracked head.
*bad valve seal.

What does everyone think?

OK, so the carrier bolts should have guides. Good. Hopefully I can get these ones undone. I couldn't on the beetle. I've seen them out before though on the van.

I remember Dave dropped the engine w/transmission straight down without inteference. How did he do that? I have a 1600 box by the way.

Anyway, i have to do some things. I'll be back on later. Please tell me what you all think of my ideas.

Thanks everyone!

by squeak do you mean hiss??? they are two totally different noises. The 'rurrrrr------rurrrr-------rur(hiss)rurrr----' is a battery charge problem, not getting enough juice to the starter. The hiss is the gas leaking out of the cylinder, if its really loud then it may be a the result of your intake valve not sealing right, or head gasket or spark plug or something along those lines... Bump up the idle so you can get the engine warmed up, maybe try taking it for a spin around the block and see how it goes. It doesnt sound too bad, howz the oil leak going? Does the engine sound good besides the squeek or hiss? (when you decide lol)

To bump up the idle you should see the idle screw, you can adjust the idle using them or using the mixture screws, i would just get the idle up using the idle stop screws until your ready to adjust the carbs.

When you want to give the carbs a go try http://type2.com/library/fuel/dualsol.htm  For a few pointers.

It's both a squeak and a hiss, depending on the circumstance. the hiss is a new sound as of today. The hiss was audible instead of the squeak during cranking after the engine had been running for a while. This is the clearest indicator I have had that it is pressure and not friction based.

Because it is a high pitched squeak of short duration, which only occurred when the engine was being cranked at a decent speed or when running, it was quite hard to determine the nature of the sound.

The hiss was audible from the cabin with the top inspection cover off. Also because the engine would have been lucky to manage 40RPM when I cranked it after it had been running, I guess it created a spinning of the right speed to let me hear the hiss. Turning by hand doesn't induce it, becaue it's too slow.

Can anyone think of a way to narrow it down further before I pull the head off?

The engine sounds passable besides the squeak. Not amazing but OK. Perhaps a shade gutless. It hasn't been running in about a year after all. Next time I start it I'll test the power by seeing if it can move the vehicle easily. Couldn't do it today because it was parked in by the EA.

I need to fiddle the mixture anyway. I discovered that the mixture screw was very loose. Guess I could up the idle temporarily

I think I'll give it a few runs of the driveway before, and if I take it out. There is pretty much always an ummarked police car just around the corner.

Haven't rechecked the oil leak yet. That reminds me. Where can I get a small chunk of plate steel or aluminium from? Usually I just dig up scrap but I don't have that luxury here.

Finally, what is the deal with the experience meter?

yea good luck with it....

experience meter is like the tooth fairy... it knows how much time you are spending with your vw!!! YOUR BUS IS NEGLECTED!!!!!!!! ahaha got no idea dude, another irrelevant stat to show heirachy

If I can get time tomorrow I'll do some more. I think we have been at hospitals, doctors etc all week. Another appointment tomorrow too. It's amazing how quickly specialists are seeing her.
Next week, three centrelink related, a solicitor and god knows what else.

Hopefully the weekend will give me a bit more time too. Now that the van runs again, it's a lot easier to work with.

When it ran, no smoke or anything. That made me happy. I'll pay a visit to the VW wrecker down the street next week and find out how much they flog old heads for. Just to cover my bases.

Oh yeah, the plate I mentioned that I want, it's to make a blanking plate for the mechanical fuel pump. Might as well pull it off. It's not 100% anyway. I'll just keep it under the seat as a spare.
Will the oil come out if I take off the pump? I'm not sure if it's below the oil level.

That experience meter is weird. It went from 98% to 1% in one post. Is what I said really that stupid?

Thanks for all the help so far everyone.

Yes oil will come out when you take off the fuel pump. If you think the fuel pump is dodgey, get a bottle, take off on of the fuel lines off one carb, stick it in and crank the engine and fuel should squirt out. If its not working, when you go 2 the wreckers get another fuel pump off him or replace the diaphram. I doubt your fuel pump is crook tho.

Are you running an electrical fuel pump? If you are then you should leave the mechanical fuel pump on so it doesnt syphon fuel from your fuel tank into the engine, because of gravity...

Here's the story with the fuel pumps.

After the engine stuffed up, and before there was an audible sign of problems I tried fixing the apparent problem. This involved rechecking the valve clearences, points gap, timing etc. When that did nothing I gave the carbs a good clean out. Still no difference. At the time it seemed like fuel starvation may have been a possibility.
So I pulled the electric fuel pump from the beetle to test whether it was the fuel pump. It wasn't. The electric pump is connected but not mounted properly. The mechanical pump is still mounted but not connected.
The mechanical pump leaks petrol, and a little oil. Its outlet nozzle isn't the most secure either. It leaks a little fuel from there too.
It wouldn't have been the first fuel pump failure anyway. So I was more than a little suspicious.

I have found electric pumps to give better starting. Mostly because they top up the carbs before the engine is running.

Are you saying have the electric and the mechanical connected? that would give way too much pressure.
The electric pump makes sure no fuel gets through when it's off anyway.

yea, you can use a pressure regulator tho. If your electric pump stops fuel flow when switched off then its fine. it would probably be cheaper to pick up a 2nd hand fuel pump tho and also easier because you wont have to mount the new pump and make a blockoff plate for the hole.

its upto you tho, how much confidence you have with vw parts and how much $$$ you got.... I had a look for that warm air duct, dont have one sorry... If it pops up somewhere i will let you know tho

cheers

How do the pressure regulators work. I don't even pretend to understand as i have never seen one. Are they a mechanical thing that has a recirculation setup for the petrol or are they an electric thing that shuts of the fuel pump when pressure reaches a certain threshold?

Thanks for looking for the duct Much appreciated.

I usually have quite a bit of confidence in VW parts, bar the occasional item, eg window actuators. I do have lousy luck with fuel pumps though.

Mounting this pump will be odd if I do it. It's an old subaru pump, and it has a really strange mount. I wish I had another mazda 929 pump. They were so easy to fit, and so forgiving. But 929 parts are horribly expensive. I pulled mine from a wreck.

I had a quick look at the oil leak. Still there. I put a container under it after I spotted it. I just checked for more oil. The bottom of the container has a nice coating but there's not as much there as I expected.

If I can get the motor out again(don't like my chances) I'll probably end up pulling the topend off again and checking everything. There are a few things i'm not totally happy with. Especially the rings.

My other half has gone to bed for a rest before todays specialist appointment and I'm on my lonesome with bub right now so I don't have anyone to keep an eye on bub for a couple of minutes. If you think fo something visual I can check i can do that, but anything more is out for today unfortunately. Little missy is a handfull and there is no gate on the backyard

Just going to take her out back for a stomp. Thanks for everything so far!

not a problem, just trying to return the favour for all those people who helped me when i had no idea. Not sure on the pressure regulators, most likely just a restriction thing just like a tap. You set it to one pressure and it doesnt change... It doesnt sound to me like you engine is that bad, just need to fiddle a bit with the carbs. good luck with it